To automatically defragment your hard drive, you need to schedule the defragmentation. Fortunately, there is an in-built option for Windows 11 and Windows 10 computers.

Most modern Windows operating systems will defrag your computer automatically, but you can do it manually if you have Windows 7, 8, 10, or Vista.

Windows 8.1 Open the Start menu by clicking on the Windows icon on the taskbar, and type defrag in the search bar. Select Defragment and Optimize Drives. Select the disk drive you want to optimize.

Defragmenting your hard drive can be good or bad for the device depending on what kind of hard drive you're using. Generally, you want to regularly defragment a mechanical Hard Disk Drive and ...

Hard drives need defragging. All SSDs can use a good TRIM. But how and when? We'll tell you what to do and not do, and what's being done automatically.

A better way to defrag your hard disk Tightening up the sectors on a drive storing hundreds of gigabytes may or may not boost your PC's performance, but it could extend your drive's life expectancy.